Expectations mean the level of standard you expect from something. For example, in a friendship, a friend may expect loyalty and kindness. We expect a friend to help us when in need, we expect a friend to give us the same level of respect we show them. Support is the cornerstone of friendship. Another example could be our jobs, we expect our bosses to be fair and kind, and we expect a good salary and many other things our heart years for when acquiring a job. These examples highlight how expectation is high for everyone in this life, we all expect greatness and yearn for quality in everything we want. These expectation quotes are inspiring and an eye-opener.

50 Expectation Quotes
- “Expectation is the mother of all frustration.” Antonio Banderas
- “I went into the ‘Idol’ audition with no expectations; that’s just the kind of person I am. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t hurt so badly, you know? But once I made it past the first round, and the second, and third – I started to realize, ‘Maybe my goals and dreams really are attainable.” Crystal Bowersox
- “There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.” Orison Swett Marden
- “There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality or lower your expectations.” Jodi Picoult
- “All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return. To me, that is a humanitarian.” Rihanna
- “We must rediscover the distinction between hope and expectation.” Ivan Illich
- “Live your life, sing your song. Not full of expectations. Not for the ovations. But for the joy of it.” Rasheed Ogunlaru
- “Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.” Paulo Coelho
- “Being in control of your life and having realistic expectations about your day-to-day challenges are the keys to stress management, which is perhaps the most important ingredient to living a happy, healthy, and rewarding life.” Marilu Henner
- “A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment.” Douglas Adams
- “If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal.” Peal
- “Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.” Charlotte Bronte
- “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” Alexander Pope
- “Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return.” Chetan Bhagat
- “Always make your needs and expectations known, she used to say. That way no one gets hurt.” Sarah Addison Allen
- “We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for.” Elbert Hubbard
- “We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.” Johnson
- “Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.” Brandon Sanderson
- “Anger always comes from frustrated expectations.” Elliott Larson
- “High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” Charles F. Kettering
- “I am happy with what comes, I don’t have expectations of any stature.” Leon Russell
- “We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves.” Tracy
- “I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep my expectations.” Bill Watterson
- “The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.” Confucius
- “I had these kind of unrealistic expectations that were fueled by romantic comedies, and it has both helped me and hurt me in many ways. It helped me because, in general, they’ve made me hopeful. I just figure things will eventually work out for me. But nobody is like any Tom Hanks character. Nobody is Hugh Grant. No one is Meg Ryan!” Mindy Kaling
- “Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.” Ralph Marston
- “My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.” Michael J. Fox
- “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.” Bruce Lee
- “When you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.” Ryan Reynolds
- “If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.” Sylvia Plath
- “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” Michael Jordan
- “If you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask… with nothing beneath it?” Jodi Picoult
- “What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.” Chuck Palahniuk
- “It’s a good place when all you have is hope and not expectations.” Danny Boyle
- “Just because it’s not what you were expecting, doesn’t mean it’s not everything you need right now.” Paulo Coelho
- “Peace begins When expectation ends.” Sri Chinmoy
- “To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.” Joan Didion
- “To halve the number of times that other people hurt you: halve the number of expectations that you have from other people.” Mokokoma Mokhonoana
- “This is in line with our expectation that demand for new housing would ‘cool off’ towards the end of 2005 and in early 2006 as higher short-term interest rates, driven by the Fed, would ultimately translate into higher long-term borrowing rates.” Bethune
- “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.” Stephen R. Covey
- “The quality of our expectations determines the quality of our action.” Godin
- “Do not lower your expectations in order to avoid hurt. Instead, keep your expectations high and learn to tackle with disappointments.” Dhaval Gajera
- “The expectation is there will be a fairly strong stream of earnings disappointments in the second quarter.” Ackerman
- “Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it’s true.” Bill Gates
- “It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty, life is unfinished.” Fulton J. Sheen
- “So the secret to good self-esteem is to lower your expectations to the point where they’re already met?” Bill Watterson
- “When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” Donald Miller
- “You are most powerful when you are most silent. People never expect silence. They expect words, motion, defense, offense, back and forth. They expect to leap into the fray. They are ready, fists up, words hanging leaping from their mouths. Silence? No.” Alison McGhee
- “I did what I came here to do. What I’ve done I’ve done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can’t expect much more from life.” Bruce Lee